How to Consolidate Twitter Feeds using Yahoo Pipes

Guest Writer: Kelly O'Regan - Solstice 2009 Summer Intern

We recently launched a Twitter account for Solstice. Our goal was to consolidate the twitter feeds from all of the thought leaders in our organization into a single feed for SolsticeLLC. We wanted to accomplish this utilizing purely SaaS and Cloud-Based Platforms. I was able to accomplish this in about 4 hours (including research). Here's how I did it:

In order to complete this process, you’ll need to have 2 accounts, a Yahoo! account and a Twitterfeed account

Start by logging into Yahoo! Pipes with your Yahoo! email address:

1. Click on the “Create a Pipe” link in the top toolbar.
2. To begin, we need to define the content to pull through the pipe. In our case, it will be the RSS feeds from several Twitter accounts.
3. To do this, under the “Sources” dropdown menu in the left hand toolbar, drag a “Fetch Feed” source into your workspace.
4. Here, you can add numerous Twitter RSS Feed URLs to the pipe. To find that URL, go to the Twitter page for whom you’d like to use, and click the “RSS” button in the address bar.
5. Copy the web address once the RSS feed shows up.
6. Paste as many RSS feeds into the Fetch Feed URL boxes. To add more boxes, simply click on the “+” next to the URL.
7. Connect the Fetch Feed module to the Pipe Output (See NOTE below for additions to this Pipe).
8. Click “Save” in the top toolbar.
9. Once you’ve saved your new pipe, click on the “Back to My Pipes.”
10. Click on your newly saved pipe. As you and your colleagues start tweeting, the content will show up under the “List” section of this page. To get this, click on the “Get as RSS.”
11. Copy the link in the address bar, and open a new window.

Next, log into twitterfeed.com:

1. On the Dashboard, click “Create New Feed.”
2. Twitterfeed connect to your Twitter Account- Make sure the one it’s logging into is the one you want other accounts to streamline into.
3. your Feed (Does not show up in any way on your Twitter Account)
4. in the Yahoo! pipes RSS feed.
5. Click the Advanced Settings link, and choose the update frequency and any other additions you’d like to make.
6. IMPORTANT: Be sure to uncheck the “Post Link” box so that your urls aren’t repeated.
7. Click “Create Feed.”

NOTE: Connecting this module to the Pipe Output is the basic form of funneling your tweets into one account. However, there are a few additions to the pipe that might make your Twitter page look a little more polished.

For example, the feeds come through prefaced with the username of the person who originally submitted the tweet. To delete the username associated with each Tweet:

1. Under the “Operators” drop down menu, there is a module called “Regex.” Move that module onto your workspace. The idea of this module is to take out the name of the user who makes the post (ie. “johndoe:” will be removed.)
2. The pattern should read like this: In “item.title” replace “username:” with “______________.” (Do not insert any content.)
3. One of these lines should be added for every Twitter account linked to this Pipe.
4. Connect the Fetch Feed to the Regex, and then the Regex to the Pipe Output.

To Filter out Retweets from being Retweeted:

1. Under the same dropdown menu, “Operators” drag a “Filter” module over to onto your workspace. Here, we will be blocking out anything in the Tweet that would be retweeting an already retweeted piece of information.
2. Within the Filter module, the block should read like the following:
3. “Block” items that match “any” of the following:
4. “item.title” “contains” “RT.*RT”
5. Connect the Fetch Feed module, to the Filter, and finally to the Pipe Output.

That's about it! If you have any additional suggestions or questions, please post them in the comments below. Happy Tweeting!

-Kelly O'Regan